User Roles

WordPress uses a concept of User Roles, designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site. A site owner can manage the user access to such tasks as writing and editing posts, creating Pages, defining links, creating categories, moderating comments, managing plugins, managing themes, and managing other users, by assigning a specific role to each of the users. https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

WordPress comes with six roles with varying capabilities:

Super Admin – gives access to the site network administration and all features

Administrator – gives access to the administration features within a single site

Editor – gives the ability to publish and manage posts, including posts of other users

Author – gives the ability to publish and manage their own posts

Contributor – gives the ability to write and manage posts but cannot publish

Subscriber – gives the ability to manage their own profile

Creating a New User

To add a new user, navigate to Users in the left hand sidebar of the dashboard. When you click on Users in the menu, a carrot will appear on the right of the menu bar and the Users option will drop down revealing three options: All Users, Add New and Your Profile.

As with creating pages, posts or adding another image to your Medial Library, simply click on the Add New link under Users to create a new user.

After you click on that Add New link, you’ll be brought to a page called Add New User. Here you will have the opportunity to input:

Username, which is required

Email address, also required

First Name

Last Name

Website

Password – WordPress will generate one for you – just click on the Show Password to see and copy the password. Remember to save this somewhere safe!

Role – here is where you choose the new user’s role. The system automatically defaults to the subscriber role. If you want to grant someone more privileges than that, click on the caret and select a different role for your new user.

You also get the option to send the new user an email notification about their new role in your WordPress website.

Once you’ve completed all the form fields, click on the Add New User button to complete the process and make the new user an official part of your website. Added bonus: as an administrator, you’ll also get an email from WordPress letting you know a New User has been registered. A great way to keep track if you have multiple administrators.

Changing a User Role

If sometime in the future you’d like to change a user’s role, here is what you can do (assuming you have the administrative privileges of an admin user):

Navigate to Users >> All Users

Hover over the User you want to change. Below their username an Edit link will pop up

This will bring you to the Edit User ___________ page

In the name section, immediately below the username is the Role option with a drop down list. Change the role and scroll to the bottom of the page to Update User.